Timeless shadow
by 2n2kas
Summary: A ghost of a man, from a long forgotten past, after an incident, that perked his interests, decides to reappear in these new times and embark on a new adventure from the side lines.


**I don't own Naruto or FFXIII, those belong to some other people that I'm not associated with.**

**Since I got bored and ran out of reading material to read, while constantly travelling to and back from my university every day and the trip takes like an hour and a half (+- 10 minutes), decided to say screw it and start writing something of my own, so without further ado here's my first story ever :)**

**Timeless shadow**

Era's have gone and came, sparing nothing in their wake, because time is ruthless, it waits for no one and bows to no one. It takes what it wants and leaves you a broken mess. It robs people of their youth and leaves them old and senile, barely even worth Shinigami's while. That's everyone's fate, that is everyone's, except for one man's, who lived for so long, that history and the world forgot all about him. But he, hasn't forgotten about the world.

Even though the world has changed so drastically over the years, that it's barely possible to believe, that it's the same world, that he was once born to, but he still lingers in the shadows, listening, watching, seeing everything yet staying unseen. Gone were villages and ninja that wielded chakra, their place was taken by technology and ginormous buildings reaching up to the skies, forming huge cities.

To the man it seemed like this day, would be pretty much the same as any other day before that, and pass on quietly, without him being even noticed. That is exactly why fate decided to mix things up a bit for him.

The man stood 6'1 tall, with a proud and unyielding posture, wearing a black sleeveless shirt, with some, what used to be called "ANBU", armor on top, matching black cargo pants and combat boots decorated with red belts all around them. His face was covered by what you could call a FOX's mask, his neck was wrapped around in a red scarf and the rest of his body could not be seen, because of the black trench coat that covers the rest of his body as well as his hair. But if someone looked close enough, maybe, just maybe they'd be able to notice some golden locks hidden under the hood. As for a weapon he could be seen carrying, what appears to be, a simple katana, with some red threads attached to the end of it, strapped to his lower back.

This person was walking through a crowded street, just wandering around having no end destination in mind, trying to occupy himself, but no one seemed to notice him, like he didn't exist at all, like a ghost. But in reality he was using a simple Genjutsu, to make himself unnoticeable, that even if you were to know that he's there, you wouldn't notice him.

At the moment the guy was passing a playground, when a couple of playing pink haired girls caught his eyes. They were so full of youthful energy, that would have put even Maito Gai to shame.

_'Look at me remising about someone from my past again'_,- nostalgically thought the trench coated guy.

The girls seemed like they were sisters, the older one looked like she was about 8, while her sister looked about 5. And were in the middle of playing Tag. They looked like they were having a blast, always running with a smile on their faces, enjoying playing together, that is, until the younger of the sisters bumped into a scruffy looking man.

"What do you think you're doing pipsqueak, running into me like you own the place!" Shouted the man.

"Serah, you, ok?" came running, the now dubbed Serah's older sister, with a worried expression on her face.

"So, do you own the place kid, because if not, I demand an apology from the both of you!" The buffoon said menacingly to the girls.

Seeing that Serah scrapped her palms when she fell and was almost in tears from fright of the big man in front of her, the older of the duo sprang into action standing in front of her protectively.

"Why should we apologize, Serah's got hurt because of you, you're the one that should be apologizing!" Without any shown fear the older sister shouted at the man, who was now fuming from being talked back from the kid. Wanting to teach the kid a lesson he started raising his hand.

"You should show some respect for your elders brat!"

Seeing that he was about to hit her and having no time to run away, not to mention she couldn't possibly leave her sister alone, the pinkette started to feel afraid and did the only thing possible, tied to shield herself with her already shaky hands, since she knew that the impact would hurt. Everything seemed to go in slow motion in the girls eye's, as the arm was nearing her face and then, in a sudden gust of wind, the attacker was blown away with a broken nose and a dislocated jaw. The girl could have sworn that for a split second, there, in front of her, stood a man protecting her (at least she though it was a man), with an outstretched hand where the assailant used to be, but he disappeared from her field of vision just as fast as he appeared leaving her to wonder who was that and were did he go, as she could still feel somebody's presence in front of her.

Shaking her head to clear her mind, she turned back to her sister:

"We'd better get out of here, before that oaf wakes up", - she told her younger sister, while helping her up.

Serah could only nod in acknowledgement, because she still had no idea what happened, one second the guy was about to hit her sister and the next he's flying away with a broken nose and a dislocated jaw, unconscious from her. As they started to move away from the playground Serah finally got out of her daze and decided to ask her sister for answers.

"Hey, Claire...? ",- asked she with uncertainty.

"What is it?"

"What exactly happened back there?"

"Back where?"

"Back at the playground, duh! I mean, bad people that are about to hurt you, don't just randomly start flying away from you, and, or get hurt, or knocked out!"

"To tell you the truth Serah, I don't have the slight less clue what happened back there, all I saw was his arm getting near me and the next moment he was already flying back, though…"

"Thooough?"

"Though nothing!" huffed Claire looking away.

"Come on sis, that though was definitely not a nothing one, It was a something one and I'm not gonna stop bothering you till you say what it was, so spill it!"

"You won't stop will you?"

"Nope and you know it!"

"Uhh… Ok, Fine! I think there was a man in front of me the moment everything happened."

"Well of course, there was a man in front of you, and he was going to hit you!" replayed an annoyed Serah, thinking that her sister was trying to dodge the question.

"By saying that there was a man in front of me, I meant that there was a different one…" answered Claire with a deadpan.

"But there was no one around at the moment, the fact that I didn't see anyone else in front of you, doesn't help your case also." argued the younger one, still thinking that her sister was either still hiding something or was just trying to pull her leg.

"Well, I'm telling you what I saw, it's your choice to choose if you wanna believe me or not" now she was really annoyed that her sister was doubting her.

"If you say so, then I guess I have no choice but to believe you sis, actually now that I think about it, maybe it was your guardian angel or something" said a thoughtful Serah.

"Guardian Angel? Why'd you think that?"

"Yeah, I mean you were the only one that saw him and he appeared in front of you the moment you were about to get hurt, so he has to be one, right?"

"I think you're listening to too many stories Serah, the thought of me having a guardian angel watching over my back is just ridiculous…"

"And why's that?" playfully asked the younger one.

"It's because… Well… Certainly…" Claire was at a loss of words, since she had no idea why herself.

"Ha! You see, there's no reason to think why he couldn't be one!" chirped a happy Serah, since her sister couldn't come up with anything to deny her theory.

"Well, I guess we'll find out in the future" replied a kinda sheepish Claire.

As the sisters were talking they didn't notice the black coated figure following them, well not that they could anyways. He was baffled how could one of the girls have seen him, it should have been impossible in the first place! And then he heard them talking that he was a guardian angel.

"Guardian Angel, huh?" Chuckled the man to himself "Well this could potentially be interesting, it's not like I have anything better to do anyways…" Sighted the man as he continued following the girls back to their home.

When the two pinkettes got home, the trench coated "Guardian Angel" made himself comfortable on their houses roof, since he made it his mission to watch over the older one of the sister duo. He couldn't explain it himself why he decided to do so in the first place… Maybe she intrigued him by being able to see him, or maybe because she reminded him of himself when he was still a kid – so full of energy, happy and risking his own neck to protect his precious people, he really didn't know why.

"Or maybe I'm just so bored out of my mind, that I'm willing to do anything" out loud thought the man.

As the night neared Claire was thinking about the talk with her sister, while they were on their way back home and how, in her opinion, she had a "Guardian Angel" watching over her. She walked out to her balcony to get some fresh air.

"Huh, a "Guardian Angel" watching over me, that's just ridiculous!" thought Claire, but what she didn't realize is, that she voiced her thoughts out loud and the person she was thinking about, heard her loud and clear.

"And why is that young miss?" came a reply, that shocked Claire and she immediately pulled her guard up.

"Whose there, show yourself!" Said the now jumpy pink haired girl.

"Well aren't you the jumpy one" chuckled the voice "But to answer your questions, No one really, just your friendly "Guardian Angel" and as for showing myself, well, that may be a problem, since I don't feel like doing that" a sheepish voice echoed from above the girl, but when she looked up, there was no one there, though she had this weird feeling that the owner of the voice was exactly at the location she was looking at.

"And why is that?" asked the still uncertain Claire.

"Well I did just say that I don't feel like showing myself, didn't I? Maybe someday, but definitely not now" yet again chuckled the voice and that was beginning to annoy the girl, since she was getting nowhere with that and the weird thing is that the more she listened to the voice the more she felt like the person behind it was trustworthy, not to mention the fact that if he wanted to do something he could already have done it and be gone with it, so she decided to ask him something else instead.

"You're not some kind of pervert, that's going to try and peek on me, while trying to get away with saying that 'you have to watch over me', are you?" Claire was blushing after saying that, just imagining that someone could be watching her when she was changing her clothes or taking a shower made her embarrassed.

After she said that, she heard the voice silently laughing before she got a reply "You would think that wouldn't you and no, I'm not some kind of pervert trying to peep on someone, I don't even need to be near you to know where you are and if you're in trouble or not, so you may stop worrying your cute little head about that" again chuckled the voice.

After she heard that, the pinkette sighted in relief, but also felt embarrassed about him saying that she would be the one to think about it, but in her mind she tried to play it off by thinking that she's just being self-cautious, yep that's it, self-cautious and nothing else!

"So, what am I supposed to call you, since always calling you a "Guardian Angel" is kinda tiring, not to mention a mouthful?" asked the girl while mumbling the last part to herself.

"Call me?" the voice sounded confused, since it was so long since someone called him anything at all that by now the notion of it sounded alien to him.

"Yeah, your name or something."

"My name? Sorry I don't think that I'm willing to reveal my name, yet."

"So you're not even going to tell me your name huh?" The girl pouted cutely until a thought came to her "What about a nickname?"

"A nickname you say? Huh, I guess I could give you that, then let's do an introduction of ourselves, ok?" said an amused voice.

"Introduction, what kind of introduction?" now the youngster felt intrigued with the possibility of learning something about the person behind the voice.

"Yeah, things you like, things you hate, dreams for the future, hobbies, things like that."

"Umm, why don't you show me how it's done."

"Me? Well Ok, I guess… My name's Na - I mean Storm, things I like and things I hate… Umm, I don't feel like telling you that, my dreams for the future, never really thought about it, as for my hobbies, I have lots of hobbies" chuckled the voice, though in reality he was cursing himself for almost slipping up so early in the game…

"All you told me was your name and even that was the nickname you just made up" pouted the girl again "Well I guess it's my turn, I'm Claire Farron, I like my sister and spending time with her, I hate bullies that think they're hot stuff just because they're bigger and stronger, my dreams – huh, to keep my family happy and safe I guess, though now that I think about it I'll have to work a bit more on that answer and my hobbies, was it? Well you'll just have to wait and find out" said she smiling.

"Sure, I have all the time in the world." Came a soft reply from the voice, you could even feel that the owner of it was smiling. "Well then little one, since you're not planning on revealing your hobbies, how about your age?"

"Well, that's easy, I'm 8" replied Claire proudly "And don't call me little!"

_'What do you know, I was actually right in guessing her age'_ amusingly though Storm.

"How about you?" asked the pink haired girl, bringing him back out of his musings.

"Huh, I kind of zoomed out for a second, what was it that you said again?" chuckled Storm.

"I said "How about you?""

"How about me what?" the guy pretended being ignorant, wanting to see where that would lead.

"How about your age!" deadpanned the girl, while starting to think that her supposed Angel is either dumb or is trying to annoy her on purpose! And neither option really bode well with her.

"Why would you want to know that?" again chuckled his voice, which was starting to irritate the girl, since he always sounds like there's some hidden joke that she doesn't get or even worse – he's making fun of her!

"Ohh come on, I told you mine and it's only fair that you tell yours!"

"Ok, ok I guess that's true, but even if I wanted to tell you how old I am, I couldn't" sighted the 'Angel'

"How come, don't tell me you forgot how old are you, because that would be the lamest excuse ever and I mean ever!"

"Well, actually I did forget my age" hearing this Claire facefoulted and by doing that fell over the railing of the balcony and was ready to scream seeing the ground nearing so fast, that she wouldn't be able to say 'Chocobo pie' before she pancaked on it, she closed her eyes preparing for the inevitable, but suddenly she felt herself stopping in the decent and when she opened her eyes, she was back on her balcony. The young Farron blinked a couple of time to make sure that she was indeed ok before Storm spoke out.

"I knew facefoulting is a ritual of connecting with the earth, but don't you think that that's taking it a bit too far?" chuckled Storm. The girl blinked again, before turning red.

"You think it's amusing that I fell!" fumed the girl "For making me go through that, you owe me a real answer now!"

"I was being completely serious when I told you that I forgot my age" sweatdropped Storm moving closer to the girls, since he had a feeling that the previous reaction may want to make a comeback and indeed it did, but this time Storm was already besides her, so all he had to do is hold her in place.

"That's the second time in a row, are you trying to reach a new record in doing that, or you're just testing if I'm doing my job?" laughed storm. The girl glared at him before taking a couple of deep breaths and asking:

"How, can someone forget their own age?"

"Easy, I just stopped keeping track of it after the first 20 or so millennia, since keeping tabs on my age got kind off pointless, now that I think about it, I wonder why I counted till that much to begin with" sweatdropped Storm.

"Uhm Storm, how much is a millennia?" Sheepishly asked Claire, feeling kind of embarrassed of now knowing.

"You really don't know?" asked Storm making the girl even more embarrassed of not knowing, but after seeing her nod he answered "Well, a millennia is a 1000 years"

"So, does that mean you're some creepy looking ancient guy, with a long white beard and wrinkles upon wrinkles on your face?" Claire chuckled imagining him like some sort of wizard from a story. "Or maybe you're some goblin looking thing, looking for his precious?" laughed the girl. This time it was Storms turn to faceplant.

_ 'What sort of crazy imagination does this girl have'_ thought the guy sweatdropping "Sorry to disappoint, but I don't look anywhere close to what you just said."

"But all old people have wrinkles and white hair, how can you be old and not have any of those." Asked the now confused girl.

"Good point." Chuckled Storm "But you see, I'm a special type of old, that I'm not old at all" finished a stilled chuckling Storm.

After hearing this, the girl felt even more confused "How can you be old and young at the same time?"

"To answer your question, let's just say that I'm kind of stuck in time and I'm forever young" chuckled Storm, he's been doing a lot of that lately.

"Stuck in time, you mean you're like a vegetable put in a freezer?"

"Something among those lines." Sweatdropped the guy after being compared to a vegetable.

"Then, how old do you look?"

"You're not gonna give up, till you get something about my appearances, are you?"

"Nope." Replied Farron stubbornly.

"Guessed that much" sighted Storm "Well, before getting, as you put it 'frozen like a vegetable', I was 23, so I guess physically I'm still that."

"You're still old" deadpanned the girl, while the guy almost fell down from his place on the roof.

And so went the rest of the evening, Claire trying to get Storm to show how he looks to her, or at least get something about his appearances out of him, but all of her efforts were fruitless in the end, since Storm kept his mouth completely shut regarding those matters, while on the inside, after so long, he was having fun playing a one sided game of 20 questions. After that came time for the young Farron to sleep and, though reluctantly, say their goodbyes for the night. And though they didn't know it at the time, a beautiful friendship was born on that day.

**Soo, how was it? Did you like it? Anyway, those are not the real questions I wanted to ask, but feel free to answer them, what I wanted to do is to make a request to the people that are gonna be willing to tag along for the later chapters (aren't I optimistic? Already thinking, that there's gonna be people reading my stuff xD) and the request is to write what they'd like to happen in the story and mildly describe it (that doesn't mean that I'll include everything though).**

**Another point that I'd like to make is, that I'll cry and sweat bloody bullocks while shitting bricks, but I'm gonna finish this story and not drop it off at a random point. That's a promise, so you'd better believe it.**

**Also grats to my cousin for helping with a name for the story! Yep, I have an awesome cousin! (at least when she's in a good mood xD).**

**I think that covers about everything, I guess till next time? ;P Boop, yep, I just booped you!**


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